Imperfection
by John Morrison Invades TDI
Summary: Izzy was never the psycho we knew. Nobody saw the darkness in her vibrant nature, until an unintended accident... Rated T once again for violence.
1. The Beginning

Disclaimer: TDI characters belong to Fresh TV.July 15, 1999

"You fucking maniac!" The six-foot-four man hollered as he struck his petite wife.

"You have no fucking idea of how I raised five kids on my OWN!" the redhead replied as she blocked another punch.

"Seriously Emma, if you weren't so uptight, I wouldn't be so jaded today! I work two jobs!" John shouted again, his booming voice sending tremors into his wife's eardrums.

"Yes, you are certainly jaded after having intercourse with all those trash-bag…"

Before Emma could complete her sentence, John booted her in the solar plexus, sending his alluring wife backwards.

Behind a dilapidated wall, Seth, Ethan, Victor, Elizabeth and Natasha watched in horror as their mother's head came into contact with a table edge, before slumping unconscious in a pool of her own blood.

"Mom!" 7-year-old Elizabeth cried as warm tears began to crawl down her face.

At 3:33 am on July 18, 1999, after an arduous battle, Emma Mahogany Slater kicked the bucket. One year later, John Parson Slater got life imprisonment for manslaughter. The children's lives would change forever as the ominous cloud over them failed to dissipate. Even though her siblings eventually picked themselves up, Elizabeth slowly degenerated into mental instability. After the murder, she retreated into a shell, which resulted in her friends gradually leaving her. Then she seemed to be coming out of this dark shell by actively conversing with others. This would prove to be a false dawn as she soon uttered incomprehensible garbage, and disrupted lessons at school. This continued until the school had no alternative but to request Seth to take her out. Just as Elizabeth's future looked like a mangled wreck, she secretly registered for a show called Total Drama Island and now joined 21 other teenagers on a subpar campsite.

While Izzy, as she was better known saved her outgoing best for the cameras, this only served to mask the pain within. When the cameras stopped snapping, that was when the vulnerable Elizabeth inside the redheaded beauty was released…

Present day

Everyone wondered why Izzy locked her cabin door. They eventually came to the conclusion that her room hid highly reactive nuclear weapons or other horrors that did not constitute as family-friendly content. In fact, it was much simpler than that. Izzy's darker secret was deep within, just beneath the skin.

The claret marks on her arms were clear as day, but her vert sleeves would hide them when she ventured out of her room. For now, as the blade danced across her skin, she temporarily unmasked. The left side of her face soon felt wet. Tears shed not for pain, but for her mother. This was the first and only solution for her to escape the horrible world. Confiding in others would only draw chortling from the typical pedestrian. That was also why Izzy had only three friends on the island: A home-schooled reject, a quick-tempered powerhouse and a cynical bookworm. The trio was not dissimilar to her, outcasts that would earn the same ridicule from the community. Anyway, she liked it this way. Approval from the real world was nothing in comparison to the pain and pleasure she felt right now.

After a while, satisfied with the burgundy cuts all over her upper limbs, she put her cheerful mask back on and walked out.

Meanwhile, the aforementioned home-schooled brunette was sitting in a corner by himself. Ezekiel did not have many friends either, having unintentionally angered the females on his first day. Digging his nose in public and not knowing teen slang didn't help his cause either. Out of those, only Izzy and Bridgette had forgiven him, the rest still threatening him on occasion or ignoring him altogether. Even when he tried to converse with Bridgette, he was never successful as the surfer girl's lips were stuck to those of her laid-back boyfriend most of the time. Ezekiel thus cut a desolate and despondent figure.

After a while, Ezekiel found it drab, and thus made his way back to his suite. Suddenly, he heard, "Hi Zeke!!!!!" Unfortunately for poor Ezekiel, a redhead who everyone was all too familiar with bowled him to the ground a mere 2 seconds later.

"Sorry Zeke, but the chipmunks on that tree were going loco for boom boom! Gotta go!" Within seconds, she had disappeared. Ezekiel shook his head as he looked at the tree Izzy was pointing at. He was sure that no rodents inhabited that. The encounter pretty much summed up Izzy, she was a good friend but too unstable to live like a normal being. Nevertheless, her beryl eyes continued to fascinate him. If only he had an iota of her hyperactivity, then he would probably have more friends than a mere four.

Like any other night, Izzy was tossing and turning in bed, thinking about her mother. Finally, unable to fight off the insomnia, she decided to take a shower to cleanse herself. The firecrotch crept furtively to the showers as to not awaken the others. Always unconventional, Izzy loved to be bare to the bone, the cold water running down her shoulders and scarred arms.

Meanwhile, Ezekiel faced the same problem of insomnia. Deciding to enter the bathroom to take a leak, he unknowingly stepped into the female bathroom. For the second time in a row, he made the wrong decision of checking out the sound of running water. Some errant users, probably Duncan and Geoff, had dropped the soap on the floor, making the ground slippery. Unable to control himself, he lurched forward, but quickly regained his balance, his shoulder ramming against the cubicle where Izzy was bathing. Unexpectedly, the door opened due to a faulty lock to reveal Izzy's back. Ezekiel almost choked on his saliva when he realized his folly. Atypical of situations like these, the prairie boy's biggest shock was not seeing the psycho naked. It was the ugly marks on her blemished arms.

"I…I…Izzy, what happened to your arms?"


	2. Imperfect Ending

" I got those from a fall while pursuing the chipmunks yesterday, OK!"

Ezekiel knew she was lying. Her beryl eyes, which looked so radiant just a few hours ago, betrayed the diffidence within. Being homeschooled for most of his life, Ezekiel was equipped with knowledge about various injuries. Even the most terrible of falls from a tree couldn't have resulted in those cuts.

"Don't touch Izzy," Izzy warned, a distinct austerity in her voice. "And don't probe."

"But Izzy you're hurt, eh! Good friends should help one another!"

"SHUT UP!" The usually carefree and energetic psycho snapped, surprisingly not at Justin or Heather, but at the socially inept prairie boy.

"Izzy was never your friend, and will never be!"

With a solitary tear trickling down her cheek, she left a shell-shocked Ezekiel to his own devices. Soon the tawny-haired redneck found his eyes watering too.

* * *

After that outburst, Izzy became more aloof. When the toque wearer met the stunning psycho, no words were shared between them. Inside, Ezekiel felt his heart crumbling, the acrid feeling accompanying his heartbreak lingering. He was the key bearer to Izzy's lost, much-tormented soul inside but yet his friend…

Friend.

He shouldn't have termed her that, it was established a few hours ago that their friendship had ceased to exist. Yet the throbbing pain in his heart still tormented him. When Izzy forgave and befriended him, he was always going to be the moth to her flame. Yet something seemed to connect these two misfits. Homeschool learnt this mere hours ago: the feeling of desolation. It was too little, too late however, as Izzy was not known for needing assistance. The idea of him counseling someone would only induce mirth from onlookers. Now he could have lost one of his soul mates on the island for eternity.

The mere thought of this caused his vision to blur once more. Why did he feel so aggrieved? Of course the violent rant doled out crushed him like a ton of bricks.

Crush was a lucid word, of course, but like most other terms it had multiple permutations. It described a comprehensive rout or utter annihilation. It even made its way onto an album cover as a song. But above all, crush meant a strong affection for a member of the opposite gender. Unknowingly, the prairie boy had grown to like the psycho as more than just a friend. This more than explained his malaise as teardrops continued to trail from his bloodshot eyes.

* * *

Izzy had soon returned to her comfort zone. With her angst under wraps, the redhead unveiled the switchblade that had given her so many reprieves. In seconds, the knife would have merrily capered across her derma. It was a different story today, however. After deliberating, the orange-haired girl just let out a frustrated bawl and hurled the knife in question against the wall. Agonized wailing followed as the poor girl buried her face in her hands in another un-Izzylike reaction.

* * *

Ezekiel's face was scrunched up as he mustered all of his courage to walk towards the hot tub. In what had become a daily ritual, the party boy was caressing his surfer girlfriend, their lips stuck together like honey. There was no doubt this was going to be awkward. Even though Geoff and Bridgette were his friends, he was seen as the third wheel in their relationship.

"Uhhh… Geoff, I need to speak to Bridgette for a moment. Really important, eh."

"Sweetie, I will get back to you in a minute, after I speak to Ezekiel."

Thus under the wary eyes of Geoff, the lazy-eyed surfer left her position. After the homeschooled boy had whispered something into her ear, the surfer's olive eyes almost bulged out of their sockets.

* * *

Izzy was now lying on her bunk, having recovered from her earlier breakdown. There was a terse knock on the door.

"Izzy, may I enter?"

"Well I heard from Ezekiel you hurt yourself, could I see the injury?"

The oddball's face contorted to reveal fear; an emotion the surfer girl last saw when Owen abandoned her during the psycho killer challenge.

"No, no, no! Not the arms! Explosivo does not like amigos to touch his arms." Izzy flailed her arms around like a flopping fish.

Bridgette calmly grabbed the redhead's limbs. "Izzy, if you want me to help, you have to sit still."

Nevertheless, the tree-green attired teenager was not one to listen, and tried to get Bridgette's hands off her top. The constant tugging at the fabric caused the blonde to rip off Izzy's top, revealing what the psychopath had valiantly attempted to conceal.

"Hehe, surfer girl, if you wanted me so badly, you could have told me earlier." Izzy grinned sheepishly. However the wide grin was soon wiped off when Izzy saw that

Bridgette was not at all interested in her chest, but she was surveying the scarred arms.

Izzy screamed furiously and soon enough the surfer girl was locked out of her room, leaving more questions unanswered than before. Shaking her head, Bridgette sadly walked back to the hot tub.

* * *

"It was a conspiracy!" Izzy fumed as she thought of her two friends.

For the third time today, tears, or whatever liquid remained in her eyes, began to stream down, staining the paper she was writing on.

"_Dear Zeke,_

_Contrary to popular belief, you are one of the kindest campers around. When everyone said Izzy was insane, only you, Noah and Eva continued to befriend me. Izzy's thankful for that and I relish the brief time spent with you. Now I will join Mom in paradise. Goodbye!_

_Love, Izzy"_

Clenched tightly in her hands was a bottle. It contained hydrogen cyanide gas. Slowly but surely, she uncorked the vial…

* * *

Meanwhile, Ezekiel was already on the move towards Izzy's room, worried that something ominous could have happened. Upon reaching there, the homeschooled boy defied all logic and started punting at the door. It left shoe marks but still the door was obstinate and refused to fall.

Ezekiel was sweating bullets as he capered towards the pool area.

"Help! I think Izzy is in trouble! I can't get into her room, eh!"

Soon, several campers congregated around the door, and it took the combined efforts of Eva, Owen, DJ and Duncan to fell the sturdy door. Inside, Ezekiel's face turned as white as the sheet of paper he found.

"Izzy!" The prairie boy clamored, struggling to hold back tears as the once-lively girl was being carried out in a state of half-consciousness.

* * *

Ezekiel's mind was in six and sevens as he paced up and down the corridor, along with Izzy's siblings. The cause of his troubles lay in a hospital bed, still delirious from the cyanide poisoning. Finally, after a long wait the doctor exited the room.

"Doctor Hennigan how's the patient, eh?" Ezekiel rushed up anxiously as soon as the white-robed physician came out.

"This amount of hydrogen cyanide would have eliminated someone quickly." An apocalyptic silence almost immediately enveloped the area. "However, our patient seems to have built up immunity against such lethal toxins, so I'm glad to announce that she's out of danger."

Ezekiel was so exuberant that he almost glomped the doctor, having learnt well from his crush. He managed to compose himself though, but still pranced in delight when it was his turn to visit Izzy.

"So I see you've taken my place as the kid in a candy store, from the way you tried to hug the doctor."

"I must have looked so foolish when I tried to embrace Dr. Hennigan!"

"Guess what," the redhead said. "Izzy loves your new attitude. And I will give you a hug that you truly deserve for all your troubles." With that, Izzy wrapped her arms around the confused prairie boy and pulled him into a deep, passionate kiss.

As they made out on the bed, they did not give a hoot about what the hospital personnel thought of them. The relationship between this pair was never perfect, but flawless was never the word to describe it. It was imperfection, and they preferred it that way.

**THE END**


End file.
